A printer known in the art has a conveying mechanism for conveying sheets of paper and performs a printing operation by ejecting ink from a plurality of nozzles onto the sheet conveyed by the conveying mechanism. However, this type of printer is susceptible to a problem in the printed image called banding that is caused by irregularities in the amounts at which the sheets are conveyed.
A conventional technique modifies the dot recording rate for each nozzle used in printing on the basis of the position of the nozzle in the conveying direction. In this technique, the device maximizes the recording rate for nozzles whose position in the conveying direction is near the center of the nozzle rows and reduces the recording rate for nozzles to a larger degree the closer they are positioned near the ends of the nozzle rows. Further, fewer nozzles are utilized for printing edge regions of sheets than for printing middle regions of sheets. In this way, the conventional printer suppresses the occurrence of banding in the printed image.